Yahoo! The Roughs Are Done!

Today I emailed my finished drawings for Bears on the Stairs to the Editor at Anderson Press. Hurray!!

This was the last one left to draw (although confusingly for you guys, it's from the middle of the story):

Once the spreads were all designed, I went back through them, redrawing, tidying them up and tweaking details. For instance, here are 'before and after' versions of spread 5 (that I initially talked about a while ago):



The team at Anderson will also forward everything to Julia Jarman, the author. Feedback can take anything from a week to 3 weeks. Sometimes there are only tweakings to be done, sometimes radical changes. I'll let you know what they say. Cross fingers...

I will have a think about ideas for the front cover of the book while I wait to hear.

Changes to Big Bear

I'm nearly finished the Bears in the Stairs roughs, but I'm not happy with this page. It's the 2nd time we meet Big Bear, when the child discovers that, unlike the smaller bears, he cannot be bribed with goodies.

If you remember, I originally I sketched it like this:

But I've decided it doesn't work: though I can get away with some wacky perspective, the banisters are too weird, and the bear doesn't fill the space well. The boy seems too small for the staircase too.

I've tried bear with more sarcastic body language, and completely redrawn the banisters. I think it's much better:

Notice I've worked up the family portraits idea. I thought it might be fun to include one with the teddy bear, just as a tiny clue...

I also thought it might be funny for the boy to have brought the whole packet of biscuits we last saw in the kitchen, and for them to be spilling out onto the stairs:

Thanks Cassia!

Fellow illustrator Cassia Thomas made a suggestion after a recent post, which sounded good fun, so I have tried out a new version of the vignette where the child introduces us to the big bear. This was my original drawing with him and the cat together:

This is the new one that Cassia suggested, with the cat running off:


As the previous page's vignette shows the child and cat stood together, I think this added humour works much better. To make it credible, I felt I needed to make puss look slightly more scared in the earlier one though:


Thanks Cassia!

It'll be interesting to see what the publisher makes of the vignette system - I'm presenting them with both options.

Summer Reading Challenge

Every year, UK libraries take part in the Summer Reading Challenge. Kids of all ages win prizes if they read 6 books through the 6 week holiday. The challenge has a different theme each time, to help inspire them, and this year's is Questseekers.

It's proved to be perfect timing: Dragon's Dinner comes out later this month, and I've had tons of requests to help libraries launch the challenge with events based on the book.

My first one was last Wednesday, at my local Ecclesall Library (I'm booked to do 14 more, between now and August 6th!!). They hired a wizard costume as you can see, and the local press took lots of photos, then I did a short talk to a Y5 class from Carterknowle School.

I showed all my early drafts for Dragon's Dinner, which was interesting for me too, as I hadn't looked at them for well over a year.

Last year was a sports theme, so I just did a couple of libraries - I read Giddy Goat because of the climbing! This time it's made to measure though.

Finally Getting Past the Koala!

I've just drawn Bears On the Stairs spread 6: where the child bribes his way past the nose-picking koala with a glass of milk:

I like the simplicity of not having the doors showing through the banisters, so I'm wondering whether I can get away with just the floral wallpaper or, probably better, cutting the background altogether and having plain colour. We'll see.

It wasn't until I posted the illustration here that I realised the stairs were way too steep, so I've rotated everything a little (which has given me room to enlarge things slightly too - always good!):

A minor thing, but I'm wondering if Julia might consider changing 'get' to 'give', which would makes slightly better sense with the image...

Signed Books Can't Be Returned!

You don't get paid for events in bookshops, but it means they order a supply of your books (these days, unless you're a best-seller, they generally stock single copies at a time, if you're lucky!). You can then sign them all: in case any new authors or illustrators don't know, signed books can't be returned to the publisher, so remain on the shelves until they sell. I'm a regular embarassment to friends, and often check bookstores and then ask if I can sign their stock - every little helps!

So, I broke off drawing on Monday morning, to do a quickie in my local Waterstones. A small group of children had won book tokens, and Waterstones asked if I'd do a storytelling while they where in store spending them. I was pleased Waterstones had got lots of copies of Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur! and even a few hardbacks of Stinky! (which is great, as hardbacks are very hard to get onto the shelves).

I read Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur! for only the 2nd time ever. It's takes me a while to warm up to a book and get familiar enough to add in bits of fun and interaction. I tried to do different voices for all the dinos. This one's quite funny if you give it a butch voice: though he's all fluffy and pink, he actually wants to be tough.

Another Tricky One With the Bears...

Going back to start work on spread 3 (where we get to meet the fat koala for the first time) I've hit a new problem...

Julia's text goes: 'In the middle there's a fat one with big, biffy paws. Mummy says there isn't.' so I was busy sketching the child and koala together on the stairs, much like this following page (only still half way up, where koala lives).

Then suddenly it struck me - how did the child get past the little bear we have just seen on the previous page, commandeering the bottom step?


And I realised it wasn't just a problem for spread 3 - how did he get past the koala to be in the following image (the one at the top) meeting Big Bear? Uh-oh. We discover how he bribes the bears later, but don't know that yet.

I had a thought: perhaps the child could be peering through the banisters, so he hasn't had to pass little bear at all:

But now it makes even less sense that he would suddenly find himself at the top of the stairs for spread 4!

I could leave the child out of spread 4 altogether, but the bear won't easily fill the space, unless perhaps I lay him down. Another possibility is to include the child as a little vignette within the spread, telling the reader about the bears without actually being there: sort of 'reportage':

If I do this for the big bear page, I think I'll have to do it for koala too, otherwise it would be too weird, but there's plenty of space under the text...

What do you think? I rather like the vignettes, but will show Anderson Press both ideas, and let them decide which works best.

Creating More Website Montages

Remember I designed a sketchbook montage for my new website? It works well, so I have been stealing time to create another one, for an introduction page to my sketchbooks.

I want to be able to add more sketches over time, so have decided to divide the sketchbooks into locations (ie Asia, UK, Europe etc) to keep things manageable. My new montage will go behind the thumbnails for these categories:


It's muted so the thumbs will show up, and of course big lumps will be eclipsed by them, which is why it's so 'busy'. This is roughly how it will work:

Each of these white square will contain a relevant drawing. When you click one, you'll see a selection of sketchbooks to choose from, which you click to see the specific drawings.

I wanted to keep things lively and varied, but can't afford the time to do any more montages, so the designer has enlarged various sketches as background images for the thumbnails within each of the categories above.

This drawing sits behind all my 'In The UK' sketchbooks for instance.

I did end up having to create one more montage - none of my train portraits worked as a background, so I combined several (in Photoshop of course) for the backdrop to the 'Train People' sketchbooks:

Joanna Saves the Day Again!

Remember how Joanna's feedback helped me to see my doors weren't working? Well, turns out that re-hanging the door in spread 1 had a major knock-on effect for spread 2...

Julia's text here says:

'On the bottom step there's a little one, but he's very fierce and growly. Mummy doesn't believe me.'

Ages ago, when I first looked through the project, I did the above sketch sheet of ideas for this page. A bit later on, I worked it up to this drawing:

I didn't want to take us out into the hall too early: I wanted a transition spread with the child still with Mum, telling her about the bear, which we now see properly.

The touble was, I could find no way to fit this drawing into the layout, without the composition being very one-sided, or the gutter running through the characters and losing any workable space for the text. But, once I rehung the door the other way, it all fell into place:

So thank you Joanna again!

As you can see, the cat fits quite neatly into the picture. Not sure of the best position for the text on the right - the publisher can decide.

Designing the Exhibition Space

The design of my exhibition space is being finalised this week. The work is all being framed, all the props are being made and the final layout decided.

We are now having mobiles of animals from Kangaroos Cancan Cafe instead of monkeys - I think the platypus and koala would be really funny. The monkeys are now part of a monkey's tea party instead, as in Stinky!, with fake food etc for children's play. This will combine nicely with the magnetic flies game.

We are going to cut one monkey's face out, making a hole in the board, for children to stick their face through and be part if the party. If they stick their face through the other way, they will appear in the belly of the anaconda in Class Two at the Zoo.

There is a new idea (inspired by something we saw at the Quentin Blake show) - a quiz board about dinosaurs, based on Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur!, with round shapes you can twirl to reveal the answers.


I am a little disappointed that we are unable to include the ark now, with the little stuffed animals for the children to put into it. Some breakdown in communication meant that the publisher did not supply copies of Lark in the Ark for sale at the show, and so the curator has dropped the idea. Very frustrating!

We are still going to have the reading area, which will be a mock-up of Smudge's sitting room, with pictures of Smudge and her friends on the wall in frames, and Smudge visible through a fake window, playing in the garden. Aaaaah...

And since Giddy Goat is part of the show's title, he is going to be stencilled on the walls around the exhibition, leaping from picture to picture, or balancing on top of frames!

Drawing A Cat

Unfortunately, by the time I decided to include a family cat in Bears on the Stairs, Maddy had gone back home. Drat!

Fortunately I remembered a wonderful old book I have had since I was a teenager, called Drawing A Cat. It was printed in 1945 (!) and was a present from my Dad to my Mum, who also loved to draw, when they were young. Mum gave it to me when I showed real interest in drawing.

It is stuffed with wonderful observational sketches of cats in all manner of positions, so was the perfect reference. I sketched from the sketches to create this crib sheet to work from.

Thanks Mum, and artist Clare Turlay Newberry, wherever you are...

Taking Your Comments on Board

When I showed you the kitchen spread, Joanna left me a comment, that the doors from the kitchen and sitting room appeared to have the same view of the stairs:

I thought it was ok, with a bit of artistic licence - one looks onto the bottom step, the other onto the middle.

Living with it though, I think Joanna was right. I worried this meant a major redraw (as the little bear's foot has to be visible through the crack in the open sitting room door) until I realised I could hang the sitting room door the other way, pushing the bottom of the stairs further down the hall:

You can still see the little bear's foot, and now it's better, as Dad couldn't possible notice it this way round. It's created a perfect spot for the cat too. Thanks Joanna!

Please people, do feel free to leave critical feedback - sometimes, being so close to a project, I miss things, so you are my fresh pairs of eyes.

A Tricky Dilemma to Tackle...

Remember Julia's last line: '...but they get them on the way down!' This is a rework of that spread:

Note the cat's now in, plus pictures on the wall and a narrower staircase to before:

But though a funny punchline, we've decided it's just too scary a note to end on: we don't want kids having nightmares.

What to do? Julia suggested combining two earlier spreads to free up an extra page, allowing me space for an additional final picture, to bring things to a happier conclusion.

I toyed with the child rescuing Mum and Dad: a happy end plus a conquering of fears. But though easy to do given 2 images, it wasn't really possible to get from the image above to happiness and safety in just one picture.

So we decided to finish with the child tucked up in bed, now the bears are gone, as above, with his 3 teddies: obviously the same three bears.

It does still save the parents, since the imaginary bears disappear once they reappear as real teddies. I thought I'd show Mum and Dad looking round the door though, just to reassure the reader that everyone is fine!

I thought the cat would likely be thinking about joining in on the comfort...

More Blasts From The Past!

I thought you might be interested to see a couple more older bits I dug out recently, as part of the introduction section for my Tameside exhibition in August.

I spent 10 years working as a freelance Editorial Illustrator, before I began illustrating children's books.



I illustrated articles for a wide range of periodicals, from the high profile end, like Marketing Week and The Sunday Times, right down to trade rags for accountants, builders etc.

It was great fun, wonderfully varied and very challenging - I usually had a matter of days to come up with a concept and turn it into artwork (very unlike the months I get to work on projects nowadays).

The top illustration was a piece for Medeconomics Magazine: a feature about equal pay for women doctors. The one above was for the Times Educational Supplement, about the issue of excluding children from school.

As you can see, even then I was working in pastels!

Bears Get Parents!

At the end of Bears on the Stairs, Mum and Dad get their come-uppence for not believing their child. As you saw previously, the bears hide when Mum and Dad take the child up to bed, but the bears 'get them on the way down!'.

I had a choice of drawing this scene from various viewpoints, but the bears' perspective, looking down the stairs to Mum and Dad fleeing, seemed the most dramatic:


Because the stairs were so complicated, I decided to do the background with parents first, and put the bears on separately. I used layout paper do draw the bears on a layer on top. (I did this drawing early on, before I had changed fatty-bear to a koala):

It was too much to ask that it all fitted the layout perfectly, so I scanned both parts into Photoshop, put them together and messed around with positioning. It was important to move Dad's head out of the gutter (the centre of the spread).

I'm deliberately taking liberties with perspective to add drama and quirkiness. I'm trying to retain this feel throughout.

Like all the other laid-out drawings I've shown you so far, I've printed this spread off. When I have the whole book drawn to this level, I go back through them, redrawing each, tweaking and tidying up as I go. It's important to wait until the end, because things change and evolve (like the koala here and the pet cat idea).

Out and About

I rather enjoyed being driven across Sheffield to Chapeltown early Wednesday morning, watching the city crank into gear. I was spending the day telling stories at Lound Infants.

It was a really nice day, telling stories to quite big groups of little ones in the hall. They were all so sweet! It was HOT HOT HOT though, so muggy in school that I had to escape into the fresh air at lunchtime and did this ten minute sketch sitting on the grass:

When I got home I flopped in the garden and decided I really had to sketch these wonderful poplar trees that scrape the sky from a garden over the road. I tinted both these drawings later in Photoshop, but you can see the originals in the Picture Gallery. The velux windows are my studio, by the way:



On Thursday I was part of a lovely event in Mansfield. Lots of local primary schools took part - children had worked on all sorts of multimedia projects that celebrated reading, and small groups from each school got together for the day at Oakham Primary School, to display the results, which were really varied and interesting. As a reward for their hard work, they each got a fun illustration workshop with me.



I drew this man on the train journey there. It was only a half hour trip, so I only did the one. It was another scalding hot day, and on the way home I was melting and struggling to keep awake, so just couldn't be bothered!

Hide and Seek

Towards the end of Bears on the Stairs, the parents give up and take the child up to bed themselves. The child thinks 'Aha - now they'll see for themselves!' but, infuriatingly, when Mum and Dad appear, the bears all hide!

Which presented me with an interesting challenge - how to hide three bears, one of them massive, on a bare staircase!

I felt it important that we see them hiding, as the reader will get a kick out of the 'he's behind you' factor. I also thought that, while the parents are oblivious, the little boy should be suspicious, well on the way to spotting the bears:

I tried and tried to draw it as one double-spread image (as that's how the rest of the book's done), but in the end, I think the only way it works is as two pictures, one at the bottom of the stairs and one at the top:

Again, the first time I drew it, it was in danger of being sinister, so I made Big Bear giggly. Hopefully that has taken the sting out. What do you think?

Nobody Believes Me!

We're a good way through the story by this stage. Mum and Dad refuse to believe about the Bears on the Stairs. Julia Jarman's text for this spread is: 'Mummy says it's my imagination. Have you cleaned your teeth? It's past your bedtime. Go on. Upstairs.'

Since the first two spreads of the book take place in the living room, I thought for visual variety I would take Mum into the kitchen, to make a drink for her and Dad.

As you might have noticed, I'm also considering introducing a family cat (Maddy's influence?):


A pet provides another form of interaction with the bears. I invented a cat in Mr Strongmouse and the Baby:


He was handy for sort of representing our eyes on the action, reacting to events in our stead, and so adding another dimension, as well as something for children to spot:


In the Bears spread, in an echo of page 1, I originally had the koala through the open door making faces at the child, but because the door is between them, the child couldn't appreciate it. The cat on the other hand works fine.

The banisters are proving to be a real pain though.


They are always getting in the way. It took ages to get the koala visible enough through the gaps for his position to be readable.

Opening Spread

When I get a new project to work on, I don't generally work through the spreads in order, but start at the bit that interests me most. Then I come back to the opening spread later. This is handy: I've had a chance to get to know the characters and their space by then, and the opening is of course an especially important spread.

Bears on the Stairs only actually mentions the bears and the child at this stage, but I thought it important for both Mum and Dad to be there, so we are set up.

I wanted the child to look reluctant and a little anxious, but not too frightened for this opener:

I've tried to make the room 'real', so casual and slightly messy, but not the total chaos that I know reigns in the houses of many of my friends with littluns, as we don't want to detract from the main thrust.

You might think I've decided not to draw the bears yet, but if you look closely, the foot of the little bear is just visible through the open door:



I thought that would amuse the readers, as they can spot that he's there before anyone else!

Bribery Doesn't Always Work...

The child in Bears on the Stairs finds he can get past the little bear at the bottom of the stairs, by bribing him with a biscuit:

The middle one will take a glass of milk, but the big one is a problem. He says: "NO. Even if you give me a drink and a biscuit and a whole bar of chocolate you CANNOT come upstairs."

I liked this pose immediately, but it has proved a bit tricky fitting it into the layout. The problem is that he needs to stand quite tall but also on the top step, which makes it hard to get room for anything below him and creates a lot of empty space either side. I think I have managed it in the end though:

In order to get the family gallery down the stairs, I've played about with the text layout, which was originally in just two lines. I think it looks quite fun and adds to the point of all the bribes he won't take, but the Designer gets the final say - we'll see!

An Afternoon with Quentin Blake

Another half-truth - I didn't meet him in person, but visited the new exhibition of his work with Roald Dahl: Snozzcumbers and Frobscottle at the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.

I went with Maria Knudson, the curator of Giddy Goats and Dippy Dinosaurs, partly to gather any last minute inspiration for our show. We travelled down separately, so I did more people sketching as you can see above and below:

Apart from a couple of pages of original manuscript, poor Roald didn't didn't much of a look-in: Quentin Blake's wonderful drawings dominated.

I am always awe-struck by his ability to capture the essence of a character so simply, and his expert use of body language.

But the real magic is the way he retains a free, sketchy quality, through to the final artwork.

Interestingly, I also realised how how much his drawing style reminds me of Ronald Searle (right). Searle was a massive childhood influence on me, along with the great Ralph Steadman (below). I just love the scratchy, anarchic pen and ink work.

I liked the way Blake's drawings were surface mounted, so you could see little notes in corners, where the paper was torn or thumbed, bits of masking tape etc.

My only criticism of the show, was that it wasn't that good for kids. Given how small the drawings are, work was framed too high on the walls, and there was lots of empty space that could have been more interactive. A big stuffed BFG was striking, but not much good to play with.

The museum's regular collection was fascinating. It was a baking hot day and we were melting, but couldn't tear ourselves away from the most extraordinary collection of dolls houses you ever saw...

Afterwards, with a couple of hours to kill, I pottered round Covent Garden and treated myself to a new dress and these shocking pink pumps. I sketched them on the train home when everyone else got off at Nottingham, and I was all there was left to draw!



This is my other homebound sketch (drawn while listening to Stephen Fry's podcasts):

Who Say Builders Can't Be Artists Too?

We have builders at the house at the moment, paving our drive. This is the strange sculpture they leave in our back garden every night, comprising of their various bits of gear, piled together. I thought I'd have a go at capturing it for posterity:


I still don't seem to be able to get my images to enlarge when clicked - loading them bigger didn't work, as Blogger just resized them automatically! Any help would be appreciated...

Illustration Friday: Worn

This week's Illustration Friday topic is 'worn'.

What is old age, but a gradual wearing out of all our bits and pieces? I didn't want it to be a negative image though...

Cat-Sitting

Remember my friends' Czech wedding recently, where I nearly set fire to myself? Well, they are on honeymoon now in Italy and, bravely, have entrusted Maddy, their cat, into our safe keeping.

We have looked after Maddy before, so she knows us, and makes herself thoroughly at home. She keeps me company while I work, which is great, but she particularly likes sitting on my warm graphics tablet and gets quite indignant when I throw her off.

As you can see, she is very cute, although into everything, so I do have to be careful in the studio. It's a good job I'm working on roughs and not artwork: I don't want any more cat disasters!

This is her sleeping on the chair beside my desk, on a pink cushion, pulled carefully into the sunshine - spoilt or what?


We have to keep her in, like you do when you move house, but she keeps trying to escape. With all this hot weather, I've had the veluxes open and on Tuesday she jumped out onto the roof! I thought she was a gonner, as it's incredibly steep pitch and very, very high, as you can see from a drawing I did out the window.

Luckily I managed to grab her, and got stabbed in the ear for my trouble!

De-Scaryfying!

I'm still working on Bears on the Stairs. The bears have evolved further, as I knew they would, especially the biggest one. Remember my first sketch:


I want all 3 to appear very distinct from each another, so I've decided to make Big Bear more like a real bear. The body shape is actually nothing like a teddy:

I like their flat feet, that make me think of Dr Seuss (a childhood favourite). I also love the long thin claws that are so bear-like, but I'm wary of the Freddy Kruger thing kicking in. And, though it specifically mentions his teeth, I think I can only get away with them if the rest is less menacing, so I've done away with the pose above and gone for this instead:

Far less scary, but still has an edge to him I hope. Idly playing with the child's toy reminded me of the mock-playful thing I've seen in gangster films, right before something nasty happens! The pose works well with the text too (see below) as he is now more obviously blocking the bedroom door.

I have fitted him into the relevant layout, so now need to fill the left hand side - I'm thinking loud wallpaper and family portraits down the wall (a good device for showing reassuringly happy family life too).

I'm hoping the last couple of pics should enlarge more if you click them (I'm trying stuff which might or might not work!)

Jumping Out of a Cake!

No, not really. That was a lie, but I was won as a prize, so perhaps I should have done (the kids would have loved it).

As you can tell from the drawing above, on Monday I broke off from my bears for a day, to travel to Pewithall Primary School in Runcorn. I had to get up at 5am though (EEEEEEEEEK) for a 5.45 taxi to the station (the connections from Sheffield were dreadful and I had to change twice).

This was me waiting on Stockport station for my first connection (I tinted the drawings later, in Photoshop):

And this is the 2nd leg of my morning, probably my favourite sketch of the day, particularly as I was sitting a row in front, and so had to draw him by bending backwards and peering between the seats!!

I wish I had time to tint my sketches more often - I'm really pleased with how they've come out. John's been off gallivanting again on a boy's night out this evening, so I've been playing Molly-No-Mates, spending the evening on the computer.

This hairy chappy was my last victim of the morning as, finally, I was on the train into Runcorn:


It was worth the pain, as we had a lovely day. I never tire of working with kids, and Pewithall Primary were a smashing bunch. They won me in a prize draw, set up by The Travelling Book Company (a book supplier, who also act as an agent to get people like me into schools).


I'm back on my way home again now - Runcorn to Crewe (he's looking very smart for the back end of the day, don't you think?). Putting them all together like this makes me realise how prolific a journey it was.

I've changed my mind: this next is my fave.


He was so extraordinary looking, with the wide brim over the black died hair, wearing a heavy wool, plaid coat (when most people were in shirt sleeves), drainpipes and red leather shoes. And that Adam's apple...

One thing let him down though: he was carrying a Clinton Cards carrier bag. Not very cool!

Trip to the Hairdresser

I had my highlights done again recently (Vanity, thy name is Chapman...). I have to sit for 40 mins, waiting for the colour to take, and prefer to spurn the usual gossip magazines pushed at you on such occasions.

You may remember that last time I took my travelling watercolour set and painted a self portrait (which I'm told makes me look like a little old lady!):

This time I was less committed, but still did some sketching, with pen and ink. This was the salon's new assistant, Cassie, getting a go at a blow dry (I tinted it later at home):

I like the complete change you get, by simply changing medium. Next to me was this elderly lady, Irene, who spent the whole time detailing her various ailments for the poor hairdresser, who was very patient (well done Sue!):

Edinburgh Festival

Some good news - the programme for the Edinburgh Festival is finally published, so I can tell you what I'm up to, without getting my knuckles rapped!

I'm really excited, as I've not been invited to Edinburgh for several years and then suddenly I'm asked to do 3 different events at once!

I start on Weds August 19th at 10am, with a re-run of Hay's A Lark in the Ark storytelling, with Peter Bently in our snazzy T-shirts.

After lunch it's another joint event, with author Julia Jarman, reading Class Three All at Sea and Class Two at the Zoo, at 1.30pm. We did a similar event a while ago in Lichfield, which was hilarious. You can see some photos in the Picture Gallery.

I have the rest of that day free to visit other events. I rather fancy a talk by Neil Gaiman, as I love his wonderfully dark work, and Gerald Scarfe is a must.

Next morning, on Thursday 20th at 10am, I am doing a storytelling on my own (though I will be kept company by Stinky! the baby warthog and his swarm of flies). There will of course be all the usual silliness, plus smelly songs and pongy drawings.

All my events are suitable for 4 - 8 yrs and cost £4. Tickets go on sale today. If you want to book a place visit the festival site or call 0845 373 5888.

By happy coincidence, my good friend Lydia Monks, also based in Sheffield, is doing events on the same days, reading her new book Eeeek, Mouse! (sequel to the wonderful Aaaarrggh, Spider!), so we will be able to travel together.

Koala Bully

I tried out John's idea on the fat, medium-sized bear. The koala seemed to fit so well, I didn't bother with the panda. My editor has stressed that she sees this as quite a young book, so I have to be very careful. With that in mind, I was going for that slightly dim, bullying kid at school, rather than him being truly scary...

What do you reckon? I can see now that there's something not right about his legs, but the principle seems to work.

I'm still working on the others as well. Show you soon!

A Boy or a Girl?

The hero of Bears on the Stairs is a small child, who is of course the one who's dreamt up the bears.

I've been unsure whether to do a boy or girl, as Julia doesn't specify. My first thought was a little girl, as they are so cute to draw.

However, there is an interesting issue to bear in mind: whilst girls will read books with boys or girls as heroes, boys can be reluctant to read stories about girls. It's not a problem I've had to consider much before, because animals are usefully unisex!

In the end, to maximise appeal in these difficult times, I am going with a boy and I'm please that he is still coming out pretty cute.

My wonderful (sometimes!) hubby has just given me a great idea - why not try one of the bears as a koala or a panda? Off to try it out on the fat one in the t-shirt...

Illustration Friday - Drifting

I've not done Illustration Friday for a while, and I must confess that this time I didn't do a fresh image especially (a bit of a cheat - sorry, just too busy with my bears). I thought this one fitted rather well though. I like the idea of drifting off with a good book, into the cosmos...

Plus it's quite silly of course - always a bonus for me!

Getting the Pencil Warmed Up!

I've had a nice chat about the blog with my Editor at Anderson Press. I worried that there might be issues with me showing work in progress, and bits of text from the new book, at this early stage. But great news: she thinks it's a wonderful idea and says I can show you anything I like - hurrah!

Julia's story is called Bear on the Stairs (about being scared to go to bed). I started getting my head into gear by thinking about the main characters, and filling a sketchbook page with research images, drawn from the Internet.

There are 3 bears in the story: a little fierce one, a medium-sized fat one, and a massive one with big teeth. I think some of my first characterisations were a bit too scary:

It is tricky, as they have to be mean and nasty, but not so scary they give the reader nightmares. It will help to make them as funny as possible, and they are evolving, getting funnier each time I draw them. These are my first sketches for medium-sized bear:

As you can see, I have decided to accessorize them, to diffuse matters further. At the moment, the little one wears stripy trousers, the fat one is squeezed into a too-tight t-shirt, and the big one wears a baseball cap (ignore the text - it's because I'm drawing directly onto those layout sheets):

I expect our furry friends will continue to evolve, but I am feeling much better about them now. What do you think?

A Spot of Time Travel...

I have been going through my Mum's archives recently, sorting out some images of me as a child to use as part of my exhibition. This photo, age 7, is probably the first time I posed with Giddy Goat (or perhaps Giddy's grandad). The little boys are my twin baby brothers. We were in London Zoo I believe.


I thought children visitors to the exhibition might like to see what I was like as a child, and also some drawings I did when I was little. My Mum is great - she's saved so many of the drawings I did, that I had a treasure trove to choose from. I thought you might like to see some too:

The man above was done when I was 3, the dancing cat a year later. This is a photo of me at that time, age 4:


I thought this one was rather cute - it's from my school news book, age 5. It was only my 2nd term of school (what an extraordinary thought!).


And this hilariously goofy photo is my first school photo, taken in the same year:


On my 40th birthday, this photo somehow escaped, and one of my friends printed T-shirts from it. How embarrassing.

At least some of these images are going to form part of a big introduction board at the beginning of my exhibition, giving background about me and my work. Like the fact that I actually trained as a textile designer not an illustrator at all! This is a very, very old sketchbook from those textiles days:

A courier came yesterday and took all my exhibition artwork away to Tameside, to be framed. It's all starting to feel real, and I'm getting all giddy again!

Beginning Work on the New Book

Since I last spoke about my newest project, I have been negotiating the terms of the contract, but it is now all set, signed and posted. So we are ready to go!

The first thing I always ask, is for a set of full-size layouts to be set with type and printed out for me:

This way I know what text I have to work with on each page, and exactly how much space it is going to require. Of course, the position in not set at this stage - I will move the text around to fit the images I create. Nobody, including me, knows what they will look like yet!

There is an artwork deadline of Oct 2nd and, allowing for my various school commitments, this leaves me just enough time: no spare for illness (or rubbish drawing), so I am felling slightly anxious.

I'm sure I'll feel better though, once I've got my teeth into it.

Sheffield Children's Festival

I was working this Saturday, despite the sunshine, in the Sheffield Central Children's Library, as part of our annual Children's Festival. It's a lovely, fun festival, with loads going on, including a parade, and there's always a colourful banner hung on the town hall, made by a local school.

It was such a hot day, I thought everyone might abandon me and go to the park instead (especially as the children's library is deep in the basement!), but luckily I was wrong and we had a good turn out of little ones for my morning storytelling. I read Stinky, and the children drew various smelly animals. Virtually every child took one of my books home too - either borrowed from the library, or bought from me, which was lovely.

I was supposed to be drawing in the foyer of the main library at lunchtime, catching people passing through but, because of the weather, nobody did! Uh-oh... my insecurities returned as I headed back down into the bowels of the building for my afternoon workshop session: who in their right mind would choose me in a basement, over ice cream and sunshine?



How lovely then, to open the door and be met by a room stuffed full of eager faces!

I did my usual talk, showing roughs and artwork etc, then read Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur!, fresh off the press, and used that as a basis for a 'scary chase' workshop.

My dinosaur flip chart drawings are still a bit unpolished, but everybody pretended not to notice (thanks guys!). We designed a crazy 'dinosaur on a beach holiday' picture, adding all sorts of silly details, until there was no more space to cram in another thing. Then I set a quiz question about the story, to decide who got to take it home. Well done Izzy!

Illustrator Becomes Children's Laureate!

In case you haven't heard yet, the newly announced Children's Laureate is picture book Author & Illustrator Anthony Browne. He will hold the post for the next 2 years. He is most famous for his Gorilla books. I did a blog all about him and his work a while ago, after I heard him give a really interesting talk.

The Children's Laureate is a relatively recent idea, begun in 1999, and Anthony Browne is only the 6th so far. He takes over from Michael Rosen.

I got to do this surreptitious sketch of Micheal Rosen when he happened to be sitting in front of me at a conference:

The Children's Laureate's role is to be an ambassador for children's books, in whichever way takes their fancy. It will be interesting to see what an illustrator chooses to emphasise. The only other illustrator was the very first laureate, the legendary Quentin Blake:

All we know so far is that, unsurprisingly, Anthony Browne intends to use his time to focus on the appreciation of picture books.

"Picture books are for everybody at any age, not books to be left behind as we grow older," he said.

I couldn't agree more!

Red House Book of Goodies

Ah well, we didn't win the Red House Award, but congratulations to Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman, who won in our category with The Pencil, a very funny and imaginative book. Well done guys!

Although Lark in the Ark didn't win the category prize, one of the lovely things about the Red House Award is that they award a rather special prize to all the shortlised authors and illustrators.

The voting is done by children, who are each asked to write a little review or draw a picture about the book they like best. These are then pasted into books, like the one above, and presented at the ceremony. Mine had to be posted of course, and arrived a couple of days ago, with this cute bear.

It's a fabulous idea and the best prize you could wish for (except for perhaps obscene piles of cash... ). I jest of course.

I thought you'd like to see a couple of highlights from my book:


A HUGE thank you to everybody that voted for us and for all the lovely drawings and letters in my book. I will treasure it.


There are a few more pictures to see in the Picture Gallery. Sorry I couldn't show them all.

A Trip to York (and Back, Eventually)

Immediately before Prague, I spent a lovely day at Woodthorpe Primary School in York. The school had pre-ordered lots of books, so the children were really geared up and excited. Everything I needed was all set up for me in the hall (thanks Harriet!), with a pretty display and brand new, top quality flip chart pads and pens - what luxury!

Inspired by Korky Paul, who painted on the flip chart in Hay, I tried a bit of colour (only with pens though - what a wimp). This is our joint monster creation (which the kids named a Frumple-Pock), designed after reading Rocky and The Lamb:

I did storytellings all day with KS1 classes, then something new - the school invited parents and teachers to a short after-school talk. Given how many other things there are to be done at that time, I was chuffed that so many people turned up, and I got some lovely feedback.

Really boobed on the way home though. Listening to my Ipod on York station, I couldn't hear the announcements. The fast train to London pulled into my platform just a couple of minutes before mine. I blithely got on and was happily sketching for 20 minutes, until the ticket collector came along and broke the news.

I had to carry on for an hour to Peterborough, the only stop before London, before I could get off, then change again at Doncaster and work my way back to Sheffield. Didn't get home until 8.30pm - what an idiot!

Back from Novy Bor

Sorry I've not been talking to you for a while - some good friends of mine just married and, since she is Czech, they held the wedding in a little town called Novy Bor. We decided to make a week of it and spent a couple of days in Prague too. Of course, I did a bit of sketching. These are my favourites, both done on the Charles Bridge:

Last time I drew all pointy buildings, so this time I concentrated on people. I thought it was rather ironic to draw a portrait of the portrait artists, so sat down beside him as he began work.

I tried to do some sketches during the ceremony, but they didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, as the lighting was quite low and ambient - always a problem for me these days (getting old!). I turned them into a wedding card that you can see in the Picture Gallery.

It was lovely to experience some different wedding customs. My favourite was during the wedding feast - the bride and groom were swaddled together in a huge napkin and they had to feed each other soup, which looked very tricky!

The groom's speech was so moving that everyone was in tears. I dabbed at my eyes with my napkin, then put it back on the table, on top of a tea-light. We were all so engrossed, nobody noticed until there were actual flames leaping up from the table! I was accused of attention seeking again...

Our Day at Hay!

Peter and I were on at 10am - nice to get it done early. I got to meet his lovely family too (hello there!). Egmont had printed us some Lark in the Ark T-shirts to wear - what do you think?

There are even llamas in pyjamas on the back (these are in my garden - I forgot to take any photos on the day - duh!):

In keeping with the rain theme, we also had umbrellas and wore wellies. The projection worked really well. Peter read the story, choosing children to open the flaps, then I drew some of the animals for them to guess (I threw in the odd one that wasn't in the book too, to trick them, like kippers in flippers and giraffes in scarfs).

Then the kids drew their own animals in silly outfits. We got them to call out suggestions before they started. One boy said 'an elephant with underpants on his head', so almost every drawing included underpants somewhere!

We finished with a song: changing the words of Old MacDonald Had a Farm, to 'Old Man Noah had an ark'. The kids enjoyed trying to work out what noises llamas, pandas etc made.

After Peter and I had done a bit of book signing, I sat in on a similar storytelling session by the wonderful illustrator Korky Paul. I'm always curious to see what other people do. He had the great idea of drawing portraits of the children, but as dinosaurs. He also used a splash of watercolour on the flip chart, which worked surprisingly well.

He read them The Fish Who Could Wish and got them designing fish. I scrawmed around on the floor with them, trying to capture what I could:


Before heading home, I was given some lunch tokens and, amazingly, ended up eating with none other than Micheal Morpurgo, a previous Children's Laureate. He was really lovely and chatted to me easily, as though I was his equal (as if!), then headed off to do his talk, to 800 people, while I headed back to the station.


I spent a good part of the journey chatting and drawing with this lad and his mum (hello Adam! - your email address didn't work by the way) and time flew by.